Daily Gospel for Tuesday March 13, 2018

Gospel, John 5:1-3, 5-16

After this there was a Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

Now in Jerusalem next to the Sheep Pool there is a pool called Bethesda in Hebrew, which has five porticos;

and under these were crowds of sick people, blind, lame, paralysed.

One man there had an illness which had lasted thirty-eight years,

and when Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had been in that condition for a long time, he said, 'Do you want to be well again?'

'Sir,' replied the sick man, 'I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is disturbed; and while I am still on the way, someone else gets down there before me.'

Jesus said, 'Get up, pick up your sleeping-mat and walk around.'

The man was cured at once, and he picked up his mat and started to walk around. Now that day happened to be the Sabbath,

so the Jews said to the man who had been cured, 'It is the Sabbath; you are not allowed to carry your sleeping-mat.'

He replied, 'But the man who cured me told me, "Pick up your sleeping-mat and walk around." '

They asked, 'Who is the man who said to you, "Pick up your sleeping-mat and walk around"? '

The man had no idea who it was, since Jesus had disappeared, as the place was crowded.

After a while Jesus met him in the Temple and said, 'Now you are well again, do not sin any more, or something worse may happen to you.'

The man went back and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had cured him.

It was because he did things like this on the Sabbath that the Jews began to harass Jesus.

Reflection on the Gospel of the Lord

In the Gospel, Jesus cured a man that had an illness which had lasted thirty-eight years. The illness paralyzed the man where he was unable to walk and take care of himself. He was there sitting by the pool and was hoping that someone will help him. Jesus Christ saw and approached him. Jesus and the sick man talked for a while and the cures him. Jesus Told him to get up and walk around.

The question is, why of all the sick people in Bethesda chose this sick man and cured him. There were crowds of sick people, blind, lame, paralysed in Bethesda and they still remain ill. Maybe those other sick people will also ask the same question, "why him" and "why not me". That sick man is there for 38 years waiting for help and to be healed. His faith and patience is the only thing that he had for 38 years until one day, he was cured.

Some of us also ask this kind of question when we pray for God's help but don't seem to receive it but your friend's prayers are answered. Remember that paralyzed man where he waited for 38 years for that opportunity to be healed. We may be tempted to wonder if God heard our prayers but always faith and patience in God for he will always answers our prayers in due time.